A gang who plied two teenage girls with alcohol and drugs before they were raped and sexually assaulted have been jailed for a total of 42 years.

The five men – all from Coventry – groomed their victims on Facebook before driving them to locations in the city where they were attacked.

One of the girls regained consciousness while she was being attacked on the back seat of a car.

Waqaar Khan, Kadeem Bourne, Marcus Woolcock, Kenan Kelly and Zahid Chaudhary - whose addresses cannot be published for legal reasons - were found guilty of a total of 18 offences following a six-week trial which ended in December.

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Marcus Woolcock, 22, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years for one count each of trafficking and sexual assault, while Chaudhary was given 18 months for one count of trafficking.

The group were charged in connection with offences against six girls, but were only found guilty of offences relating to two of them.

Judge Sylvia de Bertodano told them: “You five are all here because of what happened between you and two teenage girls.

“You, as older boys and young men, each in different ways, took advantage of the naivety of these teenage girls in order to sexually exploit them.

“You, Waqaar Khan, used the fact that through social media it is easy to get in touch with girls and to exploit their desire to be grown up and rebellious in order to persuade them to get in to cars with you, and to then sexually exploit them when they have no realistic chance to escape.

“All of you played a part in that exploitation that then happened.

“These two girls suffered horrific experiences.”

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Judge de Bertodano told the five defendants that they all come from supportive families and they must all have “younger sisters or cousins who you would be horrified for if anyone treated them in the way you treated these girls”.

She added: “Your families have had to sit and listen to what you have been doing which bears no reality at all to the person they have brought up.”

The gang were led by Khan who contacted teenage girls via Facebook in May 2015 and groomed them before arranging to meet them with the promise of gifts and shopping trips.

Once they had been picked up and driven elsewhere, they were attacked, with one girl having her ordeal recorded on a mobile phone.

Judge Sylvia de Bertodano

Khan, Bourne and Kelly were all ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for life, while Woolcock must sign for five years.

The court heard how a number of references and letters had been sent to the court by family and friends of the defendants.

Three letters were sent on Khan’s behalf - from his mother, sister-in-law and a neighbour – which his barrister David Jackson said showed “another side” to him.

A trio of references for Bourne were also been sent to the court, which Tim Sapwell, Bourne’s representative, said showed the offending was “out of character” and that he had “expressed deep regret”.

Mr Sapwell had urged Judge de Bertodano to pass a sentence which “punishes [Bourne] but recognises the need not to crush him”.

The court also heard from Zahir Afzal, for Chaudhary, who said that Chaudhary’s involvement was the “most limited” of all the defendants.

Judge de Bertodano interrupted him to say: “He drove the car while a girl was assaulted by two men and videod by a third.”

Mr Afzal replied: “He did not verbally encourage any of the others to do anything during that journey.”

Graeme Simpson, on behalf of Kelly, made reference to a letter written by Kelly’s mother to the court and stated a line which read: “I know he is aware of the pain he has caused but wants nothing more than to make amends for his actions.”

Mr Simpson said that Kelly can go on to become a “useful member of society”.

The court also heard that Woolcock “a follower rather than an instigator in this passage of his life”, according to his barrister Peter Cooper.

He added that Woolcock “can rebuild his life” and his girlfriend had stood by him.